


Rebirth

by Ariana Deralte (ArianaDeralte)



Category: American Gods - Neil Gaiman, Hannibal (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Series Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 05:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6458551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArianaDeralte/pseuds/Ariana%20Deralte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s easy for humans to create a new god.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> So you can assume everything that happened in Hannibal happened, but also that all Bryan Fuller verses are related and now American Gods verse is fair game.

It starts like this.

Ben finds a file on his computer called “Will Graham”. He doesn’t remember creating it or recognize the name, but it’s in his files so he must have. He clicks it open and begins paging through archived websites and articles. Will Graham is associated with an astonishing amount of serial killers, but as the name Hannibal keeps popping up, Ben realizes why he must have buried the file.

As a moderately successful true crime/mystery writer, Ben gets most of his inspiration from real life. After Hannibal the Cannibal was captured – and Ben still can’t believe that someone trademarked that name – he had toyed with the idea of writing about Hannibal. But before the month was out the market was flooded with books. The only way those authors could have managed that feat was by doing a simple search and replace for their former killer’s name on their manuscripts. Sure enough, their quality was low and cannibalism became the new cliché. Ben shelved his research.

But it seems he forgot about Will Graham who on the surface would make a great protagonist for a book, but the further Ben read in the files the more he thought it was not quite that simple. He watches a video of Graham being interviewed. He clearly hates it, hates the interviewer as well but the one time he looks straight at the camera Ben sees something he can’t quite put into words. He decides to try.

He writes fifteen pages that night. A personal record. He barely sleeps but he doesn’t make enough writing to not have a second job so he goes to work, does some background research while he does a bare amount of actual work before heading home.

The story possesses him. Each time he thinks he may have hit a dead end, he finds a little tidbit online or in his files which fills in the blanks. Hannibal Lector weaves in and out of the story. There’s no point in hiding his cannibalism from the readers so Ben has Lector make jokes about it. He is shocked to discover a month later in an account by Freddie Lounds that Lector did exactly that all the time.

His dreams are full of forests of black trees with antlers for limbs. Ben really regrets all the research he did on hunting to round out Hobbes character.

And finally it’s done. He sends it off to be edited, and goes around in a daze until it comes back. He makes the changes that are suggested and approves the final proof. Ben takes two weeks off work. He drives his car down to the gulf, and camps out on the beach letting the sun drive away the weird shadows created by living in Will Graham’s head for several months.

Ben thinks it’s over.

But a week later he gets to thinking. Sure, he had ended the book with Will being arrested, but that wasn’t the end of the story.

He’s already two chapters in by the time he gets home to the news that his book is steadily climbing the bestseller list.

The second book is much stranger than the first. It jumps genres between psychological thriller and horror with a strange deviation into courtroom drama for a while. He has a lot more fans now, and thinks nothing of it when a set of cds arrive with row upon row of files labelled with Will Graham’s name and dates.

He dreams he’s choking some nights or that he’s being stalked by a shadow that wears Hannibal Lector’s face. But what’s worse than those dreams are when he wakes up hungry for a nice tender pork loin.

The second book is an even bigger success. He doesn’t want to write the third and final book. Ben likes to mentally subtitle his series, and this one has always been called “The Death and Rebirth of Will Graham and the fall of Hannibal Lector”. Except there is no rebirth for Will Graham. His body was found on the Pacific coast. It was assumed Lector drowned with him.

That night, he finds himself in Hannibal Lector’s office.

“In Japan, they repair broken porcelain not with glue but by filling the cracks with gold. The scars on the repaired piece are part of their beauty,” says Hannibal.

“But is being broken the same as being dead?” asks Ben.

Hannibal gives a slight smirk. “Yes and no.”

Ben momentarily empathizes with one of his critics who complains his characters talk in cryptic metaphors all the time. It must have shown on his face because that is all it takes for Lector to trip from smugness to annoyance.

“Let us speak plainly, Mr. Nelson. Finish Will’s story. I will accept nothing less.” Something flickers in the corner of Ben’s eyes. He can’t help turning to look, but it’s only a clock’s second hand ticking away. He looks back. Hannibal is inches in front of him. A sharp, burning pain in his stomach.

He wakes covered in sweat. His stomach is roiling, and he just manages the run to the toilet in time. Food poisoning has always hit him hard. Nonetheless, he starts writing the third book that morning.

Half way through the book, at the point where Mason Verger derails the European plot completely, he meets Tara in a coffee shop. She makes fun of him for writing such grim books, and complains that his descriptions of Hannibal’s feasts always make her hungry. He buys her a pastry in apology. She’s a big, voluptuous lady with hair that frizzes in a golden halo around her head.

Every other time he’s had a girlfriend, his writing slows to a crawl but not this time. Sex with her is strangely refreshing. With the advance from this book, he was able to quit his other job. Tara regularly wakes him with the dawn, usually for a nice round of sex before sending him off to the computer to write.

The third book is finished by the end of April. Ben feels oddly bereft. It’s strange to realize he’s been writing a love story all this time. Especially when his own romance is ending. Tara looked out at the spring daffodils one day and said she had duties she couldn’t evade any longer. Ben had been struck then by how she was silhouetted in the dawn’s light; her figure reminded him of the Venus figurines he studied in a long ago Anthropology class.

He didn’t ask her to stay.

The third book stays on the bestseller list for an entire year. Ben uneasily hopes that it is enough.

Somewhere on the Pacific coast the following conversation takes place.

“The goddess Aphrodite was born of sea foam. How does it feel?”

“Hannibal?”

“Hello, Will.”


End file.
